The Art Of No Deal

Dole Should Forget Moderates In Favor Of Real Conservative Heart Of Republican Party.

September 8, 1995|CAL THOMAS and Los Angeles Time Syndicate

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole's front-runner status is in jeopardy. His tie with fellow candidate Sen. Phil Gramm in the Iowa straw poll revealed his vulnerability. Despite his mostly conservative Senate voting record, especially on abortion, Dole is not fully trusted by the family values wing of his party.

Two recent reports have added to suspicions that Dole is more of a process man than one who would not compromise on issues regarded as fundamental by conservatives. A front-page New York Times story quoted Dole as saying he would be satisfied with Colin Powell as a vice presidential choice. He described Powell as "probably" an economic conservative and a social moderate.

And a front-page Washington Times story quoted Dole as saying at a Republican National Committee meeting in Philadelphia last month that he's "willing to be another Ronald Reagan ... If that's what you want, I'll be another Ronald Reagan."The line was viewed as insincere and groveling by some who heard it.

Dole needs to articulate a list of firm principles from which he will not deviate. Perhaps he should call it his own contract with, or promise to, America. It worked for House candidates last year. It could work for Dole, especially if he says he was wrong in the past about compromises with Democrats over tax increases.

Dole will have to do more, however, than recast himself. He needs to be reincarnated. We need to know what constitutes Dole's vision for America.

George Bush disparaged "the vision thing," but people want to know where their leader would lead them. Dole must demonstrate that he has tde traitu of a Rresident, not those of a Senate Majority Leader. There was only one Ronald Reagan. Is there only one Bob Dole, and who is he?

Conservatives have come too far over a very long period to settle for an inside-the-Beltway candidate who believes in finessing his opponents, rather than defeating them on ideological grounds. The contest for high office is about a conflict between ideas, some of them irreconcilable.

Why hasn't liberalism worked, Senator? Do people really want to "reconnect" with pheir government, as you have promised to help them do, or would they prefer to disconnect from the overpriced, unworkable programs.

Which Cabinet and sub-Cabinet level departments would you eliminate, and why, with no functions transferred to other departments and agencies?

Would you work to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, instead of just cutting its budget as congressional Republicans have done, and why?

Would you announce a stepped-up campaign to increase the n3/4mber of crisis pregnancy centers and adoption options as the best alternative to abortion?

And what about your White House staff? Would you name conservatives to the highest posts, including chief of staff, so that you would have people working for you and not against you?

Conservatives - the center of the Republican Party and of America - want someone of strong convictions who won't waffle when the heat gets turned up by the liberals, someone with a track record of consistency and dedication to the conservative cause.

The Manchester, N.H., Union-Leader recently editorialized that Dole is a "man without a message."He needs to prove that he has a message and to link economics to the moral revival of the nation. Revival is not primarily the work of government, though government can stop working against it.

Dole should forget the so-called "moderates" in the Republican Party. They're history and their history has done little to win prasidentmil electmons. Moderation is the sole virtue of one who believes in nothing substantial. Dole must wake up and smell the conservative coffee. If he doesn't, he'll be history, too.